The New Girl
by Autumn Daylight
Summary: AU. Tea Gardner is the new girl at Domino High School. She'll have to survive new friends, school bullies...and romance. When she ends up liking two very different guys, who will she pick? SetoxTeaxRyou


**Hi, everybody! This is my first ever fanfic so I hope you enjoy it. ^^ Please review and tell me what you think. Also, I haven't decided yet who Tèa should end up with, and I have ideas for both options, so please let me know if you think she should end up with Ryou or Seto! Thanks! **

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy! xxxxoooo**

Chapter 1: The New Girl

"Wheeler, Joey?"

"Here!"

"Great. Well, it looks like that's everyone!"

With the last of the present students accounted for, Tèa Gardner sat at her desk, chewing her pencil nervously, as she waited for teacher to introduce her. Normally she wasn't a shy person at all, but well, who couldn't help but be nervous at a new school, right? Glancing around the room, both bored and restless, she locked eyes with a blond girl in the back. Tèa smiled and offered the girl a tenative wave, but the other girl merely huffed and stuck up her nose. She clearly was too good to talk to a new girl like Tèa. Or, at least, that was how Tèa couldn't help but interpret the girl's actions.

_'Wow, what a great new school this turned out to be,'_ Tèa thought when the girl turned away. She sighed miserably.

In truth snobbery was only part of why the blond was doing what she did. She, and many of the other girls in the class, were jealous of Tèa. Tèa had stunning chocolate hair and large blue eyes, not to mention her long dancer's legs that stuck out under the skimpy skirt of her school uniform, which every boy in the class couldn't help drooling over. Almost every boy, anyway. There were two who didn't seem to be paying much interest to her.

The first was Seto Kaiba, who was notoriously standoffish and found his book far more interesting than Tèa or any girl for that matter. In truth though, Tèa thought it was a relief he wasn't drooling over her. The way some of the boys couldn't seem to help staring at her chest and legs made her distinctly uncomfortable. He was very, very tall, with brown hair and colbalt blue eyes.

The other boy who was not staring was known as Ryou Bakura. Shy and sweet, he clearly wanted to look at Tèa but was much too polite. He kept looking at her and then glancing away, blushing. He had long snow white hair and innocent brown eyes. Tèa found him rather interesting. He seemed so nice and being a new shy person herself, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for him.

"And now, class," said the teacher, a tall thin woman who wore glasses much too big for her face, "I'd like to introduce to you our new student. Tèa Gardner, please stand up."

Tèa rose slowly, blushing furiously. As a dancer, she often didn't mind being the center of everyone's attention however right now it was very awkward.

"Class, please give a warm welcome to Tèa." A couple of the girls in the back shot Tèa murderous angry glares, but for the most part, the class clapped politely. They clearly weren't that interested though, mostly they were just doing what the teacher said and glad to be able to put off actual class work for as long as they could. "Now Tèa, will you please tell us a little bit about yourself?"

Tèa took a deep breath. "Um, well," she said, "there's not really much to tell! I was born in Japan, but I've lived in America since I was two. My dad is in the military, so we move around a lot. I do ballet, and dancing and music are really important parts of my life. I hope to star on Broadway someday. Other than that, I'm pretty much a normal girl, and I'm really looking forward to making friends here!"

It might as well have been crickets chirping for all that the class responded. The guys were too fascinated by her looks to listen to the words coming out of her mouth. The girls, some of them were a bit more polite and sent Tèa encouraging smiles, which Tèa was grateful for, but most of them kept glaring, annoyed that she was pretty and challenged them. Blushing, Tèa sat back down.

As soon as she did, the boy behind her poked her in the back. Tèa recognized him as Joey Wheeler, the last name to be called. "Hey, how'sabout you and me do something this Saturday?" The other boy, a brown-haired spike-headed guy, sitting next to Joey snickered. Tèa remember his name too -- Tristan, right?

"No, thanks," Tèa said dryly. "How about we get to know each other first?"

"How about I get to know your body?" Joey joked. In truth he didn't really mean any harm. He was just playing and didn't really get how girls' sense of humor worked. However, Tèa with how all the guys were staring at her was not inclined to take it that way.

"Buzz off," she hissed back at him, frustrated. She wanted to make friends, not have creepy horndogs hitting on her! The dancer sighed and tried to start concentrating on the words the teacher was writing on the board when a piece of paper went flying.

Joey had thrown it, meaning to hit Tèa, but instead it flew past her and hit the teacher on the top of her head.

She grabbed it off the floor and, holding it, she turned around to stare angrily at the class. "Who threw this?" she demanded. Joey opened his mouth, starting to say it was him -- the teacher was looking at him anyway, because he was always such a troublemaker in class. Before he could speak, however, one of the girls in the back spoke up instead.

"Tèa threw it!" the girl said. "I saw her!"

The teacher immediately turned to Tèa. "You threw this? On your FIRST day? This is ridiculous, young lady! Even Mr. Wheeler waited until his second day at this school to start getting in trouble. I'm afraid I'm going to have to send you to the principal's office."

"Wait," Tèa protested. "I didn't throw it, honest!"

"Oh, no? Then who did?"

Tèa opened her mouth. She started to say 'Joey', however then she closed it. "I didn't see," she said.

"You didn't see? Then I'm afraid I don't believe you. Go to the principal's office."

"But -- " Tèa protested.

"No buts! MARCH!"

Tèa grumbled, sighing, and started to gather her things. This was a perfectly lousy first day, of course. However, she had barely made her way halfway out of the room when someone stood up.

"I threw it," said a quiet male voice. Everyone turned...and it was Ryou speaking. He blushed and looked down. "Don't punish Tèa. I threw the paper."

The teacher looked absolutely shocked. Ryou was normally so good! However, he was so good she never really thought he could be covering for her. "Then, Ryou, please, go to the principal's office. Tèa, I'm sorry I misjudged you. Please, take your seat."

Tèa's eyes were big as dinner plates. "No, wait, you can't punish him," she said. "He didn't throw it."

"Tèa, that's enough. You don't have to cover for him. Please, sit down."

Bewildered and shocked, Tèa sat down. Who was nice enough to take a fall for her on her first day? She would have to do something really nice for Ryou to make this up for him. She really did want to get to know him better.

But first, she would have to survive life at Domino High.

**Kind of short, I know! Other chapters will be a little longer. Oh, and Joey and Tèa do eventually become friends, so don't worry about that. In the next chapter, Tèa and Seto get to know each other. Please let me know what you think and if you want me to continue.**


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